Originated in Italy in the 16th Century, the theatrical form commedia dell’arte traditionallyfinds a group of actors participating in a comedic scenario featuring slapstick conceits called mécanisme. And for his original commedia dell’arte presentation at St. Ambrose University, one fittingly titled Commedia Dell’arte, director Daniel Rairdin-Hale insists that he and his cast have come up with some mécanisme doozies.

“We have one that involves the whole cast running after a coveted object,” says Rairdin-Hale. “As someone is running past it, the object gets taken. And then the person who took it gets punched and trips, and it winds up in someone else’s hands. And then that person tosses it, and someone elsecatches it, and then it winds up in someone else’s hands. And then it becomes like a baseball game ... .

“It just goes and it goes and it goes and it goes,” he continues, “and it’s really well-rehearsed. And we’re going to fit that into our scenario ... once we know what our scenario is."

The local theatre troupe the Prenzie Players is most commonly known for stylistically bold, occasionally gender-bending takes on classical dramas and comedies, principally the works of William Shakespeare. But the company is about to embark on a particularly challenging experiment with its forthcoming production of the debuting Bear Girl – and the play’s author, Prenzie co-founder J.C. Luxton, could hardly be accused of aiming too low.

“If you think of Shakespeare’s Henriad,” says Luxton, referencing the Bard’s historical trilogy of Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V, “it’s kind of the epic of England. An epic story of who we are and how we came to be. And I think what I’m trying to do with Bear Girl is the beginnings of something similar for the Quad Cities area.”

The Reader's chief theatre reviewer, Thom White, saw and wrote about 52 area stage productions in 2011. I saw 39 and reviewed 12. Obviously, during our second-annual breakfast chat on the Year in Theatre, there was a bit to talk about.

Heaven knows that no one goes to a film by the director of Independence Day, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow, 10,000 B.C., and 2012 for the cinéma vérité. But how are thinking audiences supposed to react to Roland Emmerich’s Anonymous, a tale of Machiavellian intrigue so sincere about its high-minded yet ludicrously silly drivel that one has little choice but to snicker at it?

[Author's note: The following interview with Eddie Staver III was written for TheCurtainbox.com, the Web site for our area's Curtainbox Theatre Company. I'm proud to say that I'm an ensemble member with the theatrical organization, and along with Staver, am a cast member in the company's September 15 – 25 production of Time Stands Still.]

A company member since 2009, Eddie Staver III made his Curtainbox Theatre Company debut as the haunted title character in 2008’s Danny & the Deep BlueSea, and went on to appear as the amoral salesman Moss in 2009’s Glengarry Glen Ross, the troubled son Eddie in 2010’s Fool for Love, and, later that year, clinical oncology fellow Jason Posner in Wit. And when I mention to people that Staver is returning to the Curtainbox to play James in Time Stands Still – his first role for the company in over a year – the response I get is almost always the same: “Where has he been?”